Chapter 15 / Letters From the Underdogs

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Scorpius couldn't help but eavesdrop on Albus and Mel's conversation.
"What's going on with you, Albus?" Mel asked. She was trying to whisper, but in the din of the Common Room—even if they were tucked away in a corner—she was forced to speak up. This was fine by Scorpius, who was sitting at a table nearby, his nose in a book, but his ears alert. It annoyed Scorpius that Albus would occasionally let his Gryffindor girlfriend into their Common Room—in his opinion, she stuck out like a sore thumb—but now he was taking advantage of it.
"What do you mean?" Albus asked.
"What do you mean 'what do I mean'?" she hissed. "First, you punched Matt—your best friend—in the face, you're now supposedly friends with Malfoy, then Matt punches you, and we barely see each other in all of this! Albus, we never hang out!" She threw up her arms, her eyebrows knitted with confusion and worry as she stared at Albus through woe-unto-me eyes. Scorpius wanted to roll his own.
"I don't know what you want me to say, Mel. You've pretty much said it all. Everything you've said is true," Albus shrugged as if nothing was wrong. Scorpius snickered.
"I want to know why," she insisted, leaning in to Albus.
"Because ... because things have changed. People who I thought I knew really well are now people I can't stand. Face it, Mel, what Matt did was low," he said in a tone as serious as Scorpius had ever heard.
"I suppose," she said briefly, waving her hand as if to brush off Albus' question. "But why now?"
"I'm seeing the truth now. I'm seeing that Matt is just a bully, and Scorp is a really nice guy. You hang out with him, don't you? You do Potions together. You can't tell me he's not a good friend," Albus said.
"Scorp?" was all she said.
Albus blinked. "It's his name."
"No, it's Scorpius. Since when are you on nickname terms with him?"
"That's completely beside the point," Albus said, exasperated. "The point is that Scorpius is an all-round top bloke."
"I'd hardly use the word 'bloke' to describe him," Mel murmured with a dubiously raised eyebrow.
"Oh, come on, Mel." Albus gave her a cold look. "Don't you start."
"Well, it's true! I mean, you can't completely overlook the fact that he's ... you know," she said.
Scorpius listened carefully while holding his breath. He subconsciously leant closer to them.
"He's what? Gay?" Albus said.
"Yeah," she nodded emphatically.
"As a matter of fact, I don't consider that to be a problem and so far, yes, I have overlooked it. Just because he's different in that way doesn't make him any less of a person," he said, making Scorpius' heart beat faster. Albus truly was his knight in shining armour.
"But even you can't deny that he's different."
"So what, Mel? Please don't be like them, okay? Don't set him apart because of it. If you want to do right by both him and me, then get along with him. Make friends with him."
A small snort escaped Scorpius. Friends with Albus' girlfriend?
"What is this now? A condition of our relationship?" she asked in resentment. "I have to be friends with him to be your girlfriend?"
Albus sighed. "Look, I can't help if you really don't want to get to know him. But he is my friend now, and you're my girlfriend—" (Scorpius scowled) "—so obviously, I'd love for you to be friends, but if you don't want to, then I guess that's something I'll have to deal with."
"Great," Mel snorted in sarcasm. "Now I'm competing with him for your time."
"Stop it, Mel," Albus said in a low voice, and she did. They remained quiet for a while, until Albus broke it with, "You know I love you, right?"
Scorpius' heart cracked a little, and he forced himself to stop listening. He picked his book up and continued reading with increased rigour.
"Scorpius?"
He looked up. "Hello girls."
Claire and Andrea sat on either side of him at his table, looking at him expectantly.
"Well," Andrea said. "What a day."
Scorpius silently nodded in agreement.
"So ..." Claire began. "You have successfully managed to make Albus enemies with his best friend ... I didn't think it could be done."
Scorpius held his head in his arms. "I didn't do it on purpose. I mean, well, okay, I didn't want them to be friends, but I didn't consciously make an effort to," he said.
"You've done exceedingly well ..." Andrea praised in a voice she would use if she was grading him on a Potions test, "It seems there's also trouble in paradise for Albus and Mel." She snickered and cast a look back at the pair where they had one begun their conversation. Mel was observing Albus while a dubious look, while Albus' eyebrows were dipped together in irritation.
"Andrea!" Scorpius reproved.
"What? You want them to break up, remember?"
"For the hundredth time, he's straight, and for the record, I just heard him confess his love for her," Scorpius said glumly.
"Oh, pish posh." Claire waved her hand absentmindedly. Scorpius responded with a roll of his eyes. "Look, he's just a little confused right now. But you just keep working your feminine wiles, and soon he'll be all over you ... and I mean, literally!"
"Claire!" he gasped, looking around to ensure no one heard.
Andrea and Claire giggled in ill-suppressed delight, while Scorpius' cheeks flamed up as an unbidden image entered his mind of he and Albus ... together ... doing ... things.
He shook his head.
"Would you kindly shut up?" he beseeched them. "And in case it slipped your notice, I am actually a boy!"
As the girls calmed down from their laughter, they heard Mel screech at Albus.
"What? But Albus, it's our seven-month anniversary this weekend!"
Scorpius, Claire and Andrea quietened down and leant it in favour of hearing the pair's conversation.
"I know, Mel," Albus placated. "But, after everything that's happened this past week, I thought—"
"You thought you'd replace me with Malfoy?!" Mel shrieked.
Scorpius froze. What?
"There is no replacing going on. Look, he's had a tough week and we've only just begun our rela—friendship, so I thought it would be nice if I went with him to Hogsmeade," Albus said.
All of them—Mel, Scorpius, Claire and Andrea—heard Albus' slip-up in words. Scorpius' heart began to beat faster up near his throat region. Albus wants to go to Hogsmeade with me? Just me?
Mel took a deep breath. "Albus, it's our anniversary. Surely you can go with him next weekend."
"I'll make it up to you. Next month it'll be our eighth, and your birthday's coming up ... we'll do something special, I promise you," Albus said to a very displeased Mel.
"Whatever, Albus," she said, before standing up and walking out of the Common Room door to head back to Gryffindor.
Scorpius couldn't be more pleased.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
He tried to pretend he didn't know what Albus was going to say when he approached him later in their dormitory, and he waited patiently while Albus fumbled his way through the invitation to spend the weekend at Hogsmeade with him. It was very amusing, Scorpius thought with a smirk, to watch Albus, normally so confident and secure, twiddle with his fingers and cast his gaze around everywhere but Scorpius while he forced the words, "would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" out from his mouth, situated between two very pink cheeks. Scorpius didn't make it an easier for him either, even though he was well aware what Albus' intentions were. He played dumb and later pleasantly shocked when the question was finally posed, all the while enjoying simply looking at the boy who made him completely crazy.
Of course, Scorpius said yes.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Breakfast the following morning was the first time Scorpius would see Matt since the phone prank—he had slept and woken up really early so as to avoid him—and his stomach felt like lead at the possibility of another incident occurring. But with Albus firmly by his side, Scorpius swallowed most of his nervousness and hastily entered and sat down at his seat before anyone could really cause a commotion.
"Nothing's going to happen. It'll be fine," Albus was saying in his ear, but Scorpius was tense all over, alert for anything.
"How can you be so sure?"
"He won't try anything here," Albus said. "Too many people."
Scorpius stared at him, deadpan. "Albus, he punched your face yesterday during dinner."
Albus winced, as if the memory was just as painful as the real thing. "Just trust me, Scorp. Even if something does happen, I've got you to perform another Episkey at me," Albus said cheerfully.
"No, you can't take this lightly. I'd prefer never have to fix your broken bones again!" Scorpius reasoned. "Just promise me you won't do anything stupid."
"Me? The problem's not me, it's him!" Albus said.
"I know, but I don't want you in any more detentions because of me."
Albus huffed and grumpily shoved a piece of toast into his mouth. "Hones'y! Yoo' fink I wa' the 'rouble-maker—"
"It's rude to talk with your mouth full," Scorpius smirked.
With a roll of his eyes, Albus studiously chewed the bread, glaring at Scorpius, who smiled sweetly back. Really, though, as disgusting as it was for Albus to talk with a mouth full of food, it was the little things like this that Scorpius found endearing. That, and the easy banter they had established. Scorpius loved that they were comfortable with each other now, enough for him to chide Albus for his rude manners.
Matt and his cronies arrived at the same time the post did. Thankfully, though, as he passed, all he did was deliver an evil sneer to Albus and the finger at Scorpius, before he sat far away from them further along the Slytherin table.
"See? Nothing happened," Albus said.
Suddenly, however, they were attacked by falling letters.
"What on earth..." Scorpius wondered as he saw dozens and dozens of sealed envelopes being dropped by just as many owls directly in front of them, some addressed to him, but most to Albus.
"Oh, man," Albus whined as a few landed in his cereal, splashing milk on his face and robes. "What is going on?"
Scorpius shrugged and waited until the last of the letters were delivered and all the birds flew off. People all around them were staring at the mass of envelopes covering their portion of the table.
"I don't understand," Scorpius said.
"Well come on, then. Let's open them," Albus suggested, grabbing the one that had fallen in his lap. His name was scrawled on the front, almost illegibly. He didn't recognise the writing.
"Potter," Albus read aloud, but only so that Scorpius could hear who was looking over his shoulder. "You disgust me. How can you be friends with that queer—okay, that's enough of that!" Albus said, quickly shoving the offending letter in his bag to dispose of later.
Scorpius frowned. "Who was it?"
"Who cares? Some idiot with no brains," Albus said dismissively, grabbing another.
"Dear Albus", he read again. "Um, hello? Scorpius Malfoy is gay, so why in Merlin's name would you ever be friends—rubbish!" Albus announced as he dumped it inside his bag. "Do you reckon they're all hate mail?"
"No, look at this one," Scorpius said, showing Albus one of his letters. "Dear Scorpius," he read. "You don't really know who I am, and I'd rather no one found out, but I wanted to say that I really think you're brave to stand up to those freaks who tease you. I haven't told anyone else, but I think I might be like you, and I wanted to say that I consider you my role model. Thank you." Scorpius looked at Albus with incredulity. "That ... was unexpected."
Albus nodded, absent-mindedly picking up another envelope. "Mate," he read. "You've got real balls, man, for punching that Moron, Morion. Get it? I totally respect you. He's such a creep. Later. Andrew, seventh-year Ravenclaw." Albus finished with a snort at Andrew's lame attempt at humour. "This guy's wicked. Not only does he compliment me on my manliness, but he called Matt a Moron ... capital M."
Scorpius chuckled, and reached for another. He quickly read it and announcing it as "Rubbish. This one uses the f-word far too many times to make any sort of grammatical sense." He quickly dumped it in his bag.
The next one Albus pulled out to read, shocked them both to the core. "Albus and Malfoy," it read. "We want to apologise for the way Matt's been treating you guys. It's wrong and cruel, and we respect you for standing up to him for the underdogs. We just want you to know that we've got your backs. Sorry again. Signed, Merrick and Raymond." Albus finished reading, his voice trailing off with disbelief. Scorpius realised who this was written by—two of Albus' Quidditch teammates. "Merrick and Ray? No way. This has to be a joke," Albus said.
In sync, Albus and Scorpius turned to look down the table and spotted where the boys were sitting, laughing at a joke Matt was telling. Sure enough, among them sat Raymond and Merrick, fifth and seventh year students, who weren't even paying attention to Matt. Instead, they were looking back at Scorpius and Albus. In a movement so tiny that was almost unnoticeable, Raymond and Merrick smiled at them, their mouths moving a fraction.
But it was enough for Scorpius. He had been getting concerned that he was the reason Albus had lost all his friends. But if Raymond and Merrick were for real, then Albus could still have some of his old friends back, even if they were in different years. And perhaps Quidditch practice won't be so hard on him, because although Albus hadn't mentioned it to him, Scorpius knew he was extremely worried about what his and Matt's falling out would do to his team's chances of winning the Cup.
This is good for Albus, Scorpius thought happily as he observed his friend continue to devour his breakfast at his side, oblivious once again of his surroundings in favour of food, in true Albus style.

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